Five Days One Summer

This movie is dated and overly dramatic, but it also has its charms. The best part about it is the accurate portrayal of Swiss culture (yeah it does kind of exist, mostly mountain climbing and rigid traditions, but the occasional alphorn and yodle). Really, it is frighteningly accurate. Beautiful mountain scenery and discovering how old-school climbing gear worked are two of the other benefits of this surprisingly sweet movie.

Psychological melodrama goes a bit far combining the story of a complex and dubious love relationship with the thrills of dangerous mountaineering, but is mildly entertaining, if you can bear it.

This solidly crafted film is set in 1932 , the story of a haunting and obsessive love story between a married Scottish doctor : Sean Connery and a young woman : Betsy Brantley who happens to be his niece , while they stay on vacation in the Swiss Alps and subsequent loving intervention by a good-looking mountain guide : Lambert Wilson . As the older , married doctor has to compete with a handsome young man for getting his intimate lover .

An interesting but slow-moving and predictable movie in which and elderly doctor has to vie for her love with their handsome young mountain climbing guide , being based on a story by Kay Boyle. A melodrama about a love affair in which there is romantic dialogue , emotion , gestures and nuances by employing a lush setting that overwhelms . It boasts a good cast giving fine interpretation , such as the veteran Sean Connery, the newcomer Betsy Brantley and the French Lambert Wilson , son of the great actor Georges Wilson . They are well accompanied by an attractive support cast providing brief but cool acting, such as : Gerard Buhr , Jennifer Hilary, Isabel Dean and Anna Massey .

It contains superb location with exquisite cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno, adding dimension to the story, including remarkable mountain climbing footage . As well as a sensitive and moving musical score by the classic composer Elmer Bernstein. This was last movie to come from the distinguished Austrian-born filmmaker Fred Zinnemann , but being slow-going and a little bit boring . The film is well directed , though inferior than others Zinnemann movies . As Fred directed good flicks , such as : High Noon, The Seventh Cross , Act of violence , The Men, From here to Eternity, Oklahoma ! , The Search , The Nun's story , The Sundowners , A Man for all seasons , The Day of Jackal , Julia , among others . Rating : 6/10 . Well worth watching . The picture will appeal to Sean Connery fans . Essential and indispensable seeing for Fred Zinnemann completists .

Five Days One Summer (1982)

Plot In A Paragraph: A middle aged Scottish doctor (Connery) and a younger woman (Betsy Brantley) go on a climbing holiday in the Swiss alps, when their Swiss tour guide takes a liking to the woman.

Director Fred Zinnemann's movie deserves to be much better known than it is. It is beautifully shot, has great locations and is well acted. I think I know why audiences stayed away like they did.

It seemed at first that the couple were father and daughter, then it seemed as if they were on their honeymoon (as the doctor was introducing the young woman as his wife) finally, it was revealed they wear in fact uncle and niece, and they were having an incestuous affair. Not your usual love story. And it plays like a big television drama, lots of unnecessary flashbacks and a very melodramatic ending, and there isn't really a lot of dialogue either!! Long periods of time go by without a line of dialogue being spoken.

Another Connery movie I paid a lot of money to buy on DVD, however this one is worth watching (unlike a few of the others I purchased without seeing) a perfectly fine lazy Sunday afternoon movie.

Budgeted at $15 million, Five Days One Summer grossed under $200,000 at the domestic box office. Zimmerman was so upset by the movies failure and the awful reviews, that he never directed another movie again.

This is a very fine movie. Maltin really misses it with his review. Fine acting by all of the major players. As at least one other reviewer pointed out, this is a finely crafted, minimalist production as far as the character dialogue. Zinnemann did a superb job of direction. The alpine scenes are exquisitely beautiful. The mountain climbing is realistically of the period (1932) and I found it to be completely engrossing.

The film is a morality play about the nature and reality of boundaries. And what type of tragedy can happen when one ignores boundaries. Beautifully done film. If you like real stories about real people you should love this film. If you're a special effects type of guy you might want to ignore it. Still, the cinemaphotography and mountain climbing scenes are worth a look--even for the most jaded modernist.